In 1967, Carol Creighton Burnett stepped onto CBS Television City’s Stage 33, chatted up the audience, performed sidesplitting skits, tugged her left ear and made history. Surrounded by a crack ensemble of laugh-getters — Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman and Lyle Waggoner, plus frequent guest star Tim Conway — Burnett made The Carol Burnett Show must-watch, feel-good TV that earned the weekly series 25 Emmy awards. Fifty years later, it lives on in reruns and DVD box sets.

“It was just a plethora of goodies,” says Burnett of the two-hour special, which bows Sunday.

She shares more here.

Your thoughts on the show’s lasting appeal?
Carol Burnett: My answer is “Funny is funny.” I dare anybody to look at the dentist sketch with Harvey and Tim and not double over with laughter — and it’s 45 years old! We were never topical, so what was funny then is holding up now.

How quickly did you know the cast was something special?
I never thought we were anything particularly special. [Laughs] I thought we were good, but I guess when I realized we were doing something right was when we got picked up for another season.

What did Bob Mackie mean to you and the show?
Do the math: 276 shows over 11 years — that’s a little over 17,000 costumes he designed. Sometimes I didn’t know how I was going to do a character until I knew what he was going to dress me in. It was like where a little boy puts on a pirate outfit or a cowboy outfit, and they become that. That’s what Bob did for me.

Was cracking each other up part of the fun?
We didn’t break up as often as people think; it’s just that they remember it so much! I averaged out how much we broke up, and it comes to 7 percent of the time. Usually it was Conway that caused it — and Tim wasn’t a regular on our show until the ninth season!

Whatever happened to the singing Bea Arthur lookalike?
I got a letter a few months ago from someone who knew her! She died recently at age 100, and they played that clip at her memorial. … I’d never seen her before in my life. We just happened to know the same song!

Tell me about the upcoming Netflix series A Little Help With Carol Burnett.
I am the host and we present adult dilemmas to children ages 5 to 9 and they come up with solutions. It’s so cute, because at that age, they don’t censor themselves. They just blurt it out, and it’s just total honesty … and sometimes very profound!

Rumor is you’re a big Vince Gilligan fan. You and Bob Odenkirk together on Better Call Saul is a bigger dream than even I can dream. Would you?
I would love it! … Vince came to our show. We have the same driver — his name is Jason, he’s a great guy, and he drives Vince to events — so, I said, “Oh, please tell him how much I just so admire him.” Next time I saw Jason, he said, “He’s crazy about you, too!” I got his email from Jason, emailed Vince and said, “Can you come to our 50th?” I got to meet him at the party afterward. I’m going to try to figure out when we can have dinner.

CAROL ON HER FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Eunice
“I loved doing Eunice [in “The Family” sketches]. She just spoke to me, because she was such a pitiful character.”

Mrs. Wiggins
“Tim was always trying to crack me up with a line that he hadn’t had in rehearsal, and I realized that I can’t laugh as Mrs. Wiggins, because she’s just so stupid and people who are that dumb don’t have a sense of humor.”

Nora Desmond
“I was raised in the ’40s and early ’50s going to movies with my grandmother. It was a given when we got the show I would want to do a takeoff on Double Indemnity, or The Postman Always Rings Twice.”

Stella Toddler
“It was like a cartoon with the physical comedy. I got beat up all the time doing this poor old lady, but I loved physical comedy so I enjoyed her.”

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